, 1887-06-04

the advice of. his Gladstonian allies. He
has, at all events, permitted the matter
to stand as it stood a week ago, save for the
fact that he has declared the document we
published to be o forgery. Whatever success
tins policy may have with persons who for
party reasons desire an excuse for closing
their eyes to unpleasant truths, an unpreju-
diced public will certainly not be satisfied
with Mr.. Parnell's bare word. 1t is clear
that II Mr.. Parnell was the author of the
letter we have reproduced he cannot be con-
sldered incapable OF repudiating it. II he was
anxious to mislead English opinion in 1882,
there are far stronger reasons to induce him
to play a double part now. Nor has his re-.
cord been so stainless that he can claim to
have his word taken without corroborative
evidence. The denunciation of the letter as
a forgery is, if Mr.. Parnell takes no steps to
compel an investigation in a Court of Justice,
utterly worthless, and will deceive nobody
who does not wish to be deceived. It must
be remembered that the publication of the
letter was not O. bolt out of the blue. For
several weeks we have spared no pains to
BRING home to the public mind q knowledge
OF the conneXion subsisting between "Parnel-
"lsm and Crime" We have conclusively
proved from the writings of Mr.. Parnells
paymasters in the United States and from
the speeches of his subalterns in Ireland that
the organization of which he is the chief is
double-taced, that while it presents itself in
the Imperial Parliament as a constitutional
movement and is treated as such by Mr..
Gladstone, it is mainly supported by the
apostles OF the gospel of dynamite in America,
ana that now, as six years ago, It's footsteps
are logged by crime. The letter we have
printed reveals Mr.. Parnells difficulties in
keeping up the game of Implicitly, but it dis
closes nothing at which the readers of our
recent articles can feel greatly surprised.
There have been audacious denials of the
most notorious facts in Parliament and else
where, but some statements which even the
most brazen impudence discreetly leaves un-
challenged dispose of the theory that Mr..
Parnell IS absolutely incapable of maintaining
any relations with criminals. Mr.. Parnel's
recommendation of Sheridan, who was sub
sequently discovered to be the organizer of
the lnvinclbles and of other murder clubs,
and who has since been Ford's Colleague ON
the IRISH World, is not more strange than
the TACT that when released from Kilmainham
on parole, less than a month before the Ph9,
nix Park murders, one of the first Of his
friends to meet him at Wilesden was Byrne,
who has since boosted of his completely in
the plot that eliminated in the victory Of
the 9th Of May, and who, a month or two
ago, called on the Irish to casa aside "senti-
mental bosh" and to resort to "the torch.
the 'knife, and dynamite" Mr.. Parnell, of
course, says that he knew nothing of the
criminal plots of Sheridan and Byrness but
we find him associated with them both at
the moment when their wickedness was
ripening and Town to the present time they
have continued to be among the pillars of his
organization in the United States. With
such relations as these, it is no matter for
surprise that Mr.. Parnell should have depre.
Gated the anger of some of his friends at his
condemnation of the crime, in which, be it
remembered, Patrick Ford Joined. Even in
his protest in the House of Commons he show
ed plainly that he drew a distinction between
the murder of Lord Frederick Cavendish and
the murder of Mr.. Burke. We have never
questioned the sincerity of his regret for the
accident to the former, which was poIiti-
cally i~nconvenient, and indeed, disastrous.
but the more stress is laid on this the more
obvious is it that Mr.. Burke's removal
was viewed with very different eyes. For
all these reasons Mr.. Parnell must not ex.
pect to be believed, if he contents himself
with declaring the letter a forgery and de-
nouncing The Times for having fomged it. The
attempts made to prove that the signature is
not Mr.. Parnells have ludicrously broken
down. Indeed, some of his friends have saw
ed us the trouble of producing undoubted
specimens of his wriAnaa which exhibit the